Downregulation of HDAC9 inhibits cell proliferation and tumor formation by inducing cell cycle arrest in retinoblastoma

Histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) is a member of class II HDACs, which regulates a wide variety of normal and abnormal physiological functions. Recently, HDAC9 has been found to be overexpressed in some types of human cancers. However, the role of HDAC9 in retinoblastoma remains unclear. In this study, we found that HDAC9 was commonly expressed in retinoblastoma tissues and HDAC9 was overexpressed in prognostically poor retinoblastoma patients. Through knocking down HDAC9 in Y79 and WERI-Rb-1 cells, the expression level of HDAC9 was found to be positively related to cell proliferation in vitro. Further investigation indicated that knockdown HDAC9 could significantly induce cell cycle arrest at G1 phase in retinoblastoma cells. Western blot assay showed downregulation of HDAC9 could significantly decrease cyclin E2 and CDK2 expression. Lastly, xenograft study in nude mice showed that downregulation of HDAC9 inhibited tumor growth and development in vivo. Therefore, our results suggest that HDAC9 could serve as a novel potential therapeutic target in the treatment of retinoblastoma.